


ghost in the sheets

by andnowforyaya



Category: B.A.P
Genre: Haunted Houses, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, is there like a scaredy-cat/comfort tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-02
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-24 11:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4918195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andnowforyaya/pseuds/andnowforyaya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>B.A.P film a segment in a haunted house. After, Daehyun can't shake the ghosts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> it's HALLOWEEEEEEEENTIME
> 
> i dunno what i'm doing with this but i thought i'd start posting it anyway

Himchan is not _scared_ , thank you very much. He’s not scared at all, even as they’re walking down this narrow, dark hallway and there’s a creaking noise coming from the walls and they had read, before entering the house, the plaque on the wall outside that told the story about the family who had died inside. Apparently, the father had murdered his entire family in this cabin a few decades ago and their spirits were still trapped within its walls, angry, vengeful, looking for an outlet.

It’s all fake, right?

There’s a staff person in front of him walking backwards slowly and filming the whole thing, capturing them all on tape, and _he’s_  not worried about anything, so why should Himchan be?

Except he hates - he _hates_  - the part when those guys in rags and body paint jump out and grab at you with wet fingers and hiss and moan. That’s the worst. That’s totally why he’s walking around on stiff legs, following too closely behind Jongup, and trying surreptitiously to clutch the tail of Jongup’s jacket, just in case he has to shield himself with another human body.

It really is dark in here. Dark and narrow. Escape would be impossible. He’s blocked on either side by his band members, probably, with Daehyun right behind him, and he can’t see the ceiling. It’s just black.

Himchan looks up. He thinks he sees a pair of eyes, the silver backs of them reflected as they pass underneath, blinking at him from somewhere above.

He looks back straight ahead again quickly, gulping, heart starting to pick up pace.

It’s fake, it’s fake, it’s _fake_.

Maybe if he doesn’t look anywhere else but at Jongup’s back, maybe he’ll be safe. Maybe nothing will come out of the shadows for him.

There are shelves on either side of the hall, cluttered with dusty knick-knacks, toys of the children who had passed.

Daehyun steps on his heel, and Himchan jumps, startling, turning back to glare at him.

“Sorry,” Daehyun mumbles, his voice tiny. “Sorry, sorry. Oh my god.”

His shoulders are hunched, and his arms are crossed tightly over his chest, his eyes wide.

Their manager is definitely going to pay for scheduling this, for bringing the band onto this show solely to be filmed going through a haunted house. The only person who could possibly be getting a rise out of this whole ordeal is Youngjae. Maybe Junhong. Himchan imagines the thoughts probably running through Yongguk’s and Jongup’s minds right now: what socialism would look like in capitalist nations, and the latest Naruto episode probably, respectively.

Behind Daehyun, Youngjae should be walking with Junhong, but the staff must have spaced them out pretty far in order to film them in groups, since Himchan can’t see anyone else.

“Hyung,” Daehyun whines. “There’s a door.”

Himchan turns again, to the front, and indeed they are closing in on a door. A door that is open. It’s dark, so dark, and Himchan can barely make out anything in the weird green light, but he knows there’s going to be something behind that door. He knows it.

Knowledge does nothing to calm his nerves, though. Jongup dawdles by, behind Yongguk who has already disappeared around a corner, while Himchan pauses, and then it’s he and Daehyun next, and he curses himself mentally for lagging behind Jongup. He should have kept pace.

“Come on,” Himchan whispers, absently reaching for Daehyun’s hand. Daehyun’s arms are still crossed, so he ends up grabbing onto his wrist instead, and then dragging him forward.

“I hate these things,” Daehyun mutters under his breath.

“Let’s just get this over with.”

They walk. They should run, but they don’t. They walk and then Daehyun’s screaming, a high yelp that would be funny under any other circumstances, except Himchan’s screaming, too. Because suddenly there’s a - there’s a _thing_. A rag-wrapped thing with a gaping mouth and sticky hands and it’s grabbing at Daehyun and pulling at his clothes and Himchan is pulling him back and clinging for life, and he might imagine it, but the thing is smelly and is making these hideous noises and looks like it crawled out of a well after rotting there for decades, and finally it lets go and Daehyun collides into Himchan’s chest, stomping his feet and throwing a mini-tantrum, holding Himchan around the waist.

“I really, really, really hate these things,” Daehyun is yelling, his voice high-pitched with embarrassment as his heart pounds so hard Himchan can feel it. Daehyun's face is tucked into Himchan’s neck.

His outburst is hiding Himchan’s own, so he takes advantage of that and pulls Daehyun along, still attached to his waist, rubbing a hand over his back. “It’s gone, okay? That was probably the only thing that’s going to happen, right? Just one big scare. Wow, isn’t our VJ lucky?”

Daehyun groans, remembering that they are being filmed as the VJ in front of them makes an ‘okay’ sign with his fingers and smirking. “My image,” Daehyun wails.

“Babys will love it,” Himchan says, heart rate gradually returning to normal. “Anything for them, right?”

“Anything for Babys,” Daehyun agrees, arms still tight around Himchan’s waist. His breath hot against Himchan’s neck. Daehyun’s skin is warm and soft and he smells like spiced body spray and sweat, and it makes Himchan’s head light. Daehyun whispers, “When is this stupid haunted house tour going to be done?”

“What happened to our tough guy from Busan?” Himchan teases.

“Hey!” Daehyun yells in his ear, affronted or playing very well at being so. “I’ll show you tough!” He lets go of Himchan’s waist but takes one of his hands instead, stomping off in the direction where Yongguk disappeared, tugging the older boy behind him.

.


	2. Chapter 2

The haunted house segment ends with a failed scare. Himchan and Daehyun watch incredulously as Youngjae starts an actual conversation with the mummy that had just terrified the daylights out of them, asking the monster if it’s getting too hot in his costume and offering to bring him some water. Like, Himchan gets it; he's not really a mummy, but still...

“You’ve worked hard,” Youngjae says with a huge grin. He makes two thumbs up to the VJ, who brings the camera up and down like a nod. “You’ve all worked hard. Wow, that was kind of scary. It was fun!”

“Fun!” Daehyun almost spits, still latched to Himchan around his neck. Their VJ follows them, making hand motions for them to continue speaking. “Youngjae-goon -- he’s lying,” Daehyun teases. “Later tonight he won’t be able to sleep. You know, he has a stuffed--”

“Isn’t that you?” Himchan interrupts, grinning, and Daehyun falls silent, chagrined and blushing, his chin tucked into his chest. “Don’t make up stories. Hey, how did we raise you!”

“Hyung!” Daehyun yelps when Himchan reaches around his shoulders and manages to clamp a hand over his mouth. He laughs against that hand. Their ears are touching.

“Daehyunnie here has a cute pink stuffed teddy bear -- Babyz know the one. I know he used to have a tough image, but don’t you think that’s over now?” Himchan grins again at the camera, trying to wrangle a squirming Daehyun, but he ultimately lets go when he feels something wet against the palm of his hand. “Oi! Jung Daehyun!” he shouts when Daehyun skips away with a bark of laughter, “Did you just lick me!?”

.

The second segment of their Halloween special is going to be a typical hidden camera prank.* Each of the members will be successively led into a separate room and asked to fill out a survey of their experience with the staff of the haunted house, while another staff member wearing long white linens and a wig of tangled black hair hides under the table where they are sitting, covered by a long tablecloth, waiting for the best moment to jump out to scare that member.

Typical, but always funny.

Junhong is the first to go. While members take the survey, another staff person keeps everyone else occupied with instructions on how to take the survey, what to expect, what their next segment will be -- anything that sounds official, really. Himchan and the others sit in a small room with the camera trained on them, nodding along to the staff person’s instructions and asking questions when appropriate.

Junhong doesn’t return.

“He’s just going to the next segment first,” the staff explain, as they shuttle Jongup off to take the survey.

Left to themselves in the room, Daehyun turns to Himchan and whispers, “I don’t like this. Seems suspicious.”

Youngjae’s eyes flicker to them. “You’re right. It feels like it’s definitely a trick.”

Now on guard, Daehyun refuses to be next to be sent to take the survey. Youngjae goes instead.

Then, to Daehyun’s dismay, Himchan volunteers.

The young woman who leads him down the hall is quiet and official. She guides him to a small office furnished by a chair, a tripod with a camera in the corner, and a table covered by a long white tablecloth. On top of the table is a laptop.

“You can sit there, Himchan-sshi,” she says, pointing. “And take the survey on the laptop. Do you have any questions?”

Himchan feels his lips quirk into a smile. “Yeah. What’s going to happen when I sit down?”

To her credit, the young woman stays professional, but she does blink a few times rapidly, and that makes Himchan even more suspicious. “You’ll just take the survey. I’ll come get you in a few minutes.”

Himchan sits down and cracks his knuckles as she walks away. There could be something in the program they’re using for the survey that surprises him, Himchan muses as he answers questions like, “Did you think the length of the hallway was long enough?”

About five questions in, he feels a prickle on the back of his neck. He pauses in narrating aloud, looking around the room. Nothing is amiss. Nothing is moving. He looks up and into the camera filming him. “I just got a shiver,” he admits. “Something weird is going to--”

A ghost grabs his calf under the table, making an awful croaking noise like that girl in _The Ring_. She slowly emerges from under the tablecloth and Himchan shrieks, backing away from the table and knocking his chair over in surprise, breath coming fast. “Hiiiimchaaaaaan,” the ghost croaks, and recognition drops like a cog fitting into place in his chest.

“Youngjae?” Himchan asks.

The-ghost-that-is-Youngjae drops to the floor, cackling loudly. His wig goes askew and Himchan can see dyed chestnut brown hair and Youngjae’s eyes tightly shut as laugh wrinkles form around them. “You should have seen your face!” Youngjae chokes out, still rolling around laughing.

“Yeah, yeah,” Himchan says huffily. He feels his face heating and pushes down the urge to wrestle Youngjae into a headlock and tweak his ears a bit. “Very funny.”

“Your face!” Youngjae says again, finally coming back up to stand. He takes off his wig.

The young woman comes back, this time with humor in her eyes and in the line of her lips. “Daehyun-sshi is next,” she says. “What do you want to do?”

Youngjae looks at Himchan. Himchan looks at Youngjae. Their eyes light up at the same moment.

“Don’t go easy on him,” Youngjae says, handing the wig over to Himchan.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *[Got7 did a prank like this and it was spectacular.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z-6ZSTAvTE)


	3. Chapter 3

There’s no way Daehyun’s going to be the last person in the room, especially after suffering through that haunted house, so when the staff ask for their next volunteer, Daehyun jumps forward. He’d rather get whatever task this is done and be reunited with his bandmates than be the loner at the end, knowing that usually if there’s a prank involved, this loner is the one who gets the brunt of it. He knows how these things go.

Anyway, he leaves Yongguk with a nervous laugh and wave and follows the staff person down a long hallway. The girl he’s following explains that he’s just going to take a survey on the computer, and that if he can narrate aloud his thoughts as he’s taking it, that would be best for the footage. Daehyun acknowledges her instructions. He never has any problem narrating aloud.

“Then you’re all set,” she says, motioning him to the chair in the small room. The room seems harmless -- no dark corners or anything -- and Daehyun sits in the seat, scooting the chair forward as he looks at the screen in front of him. This isn’t scary...He’d been imagining some sort of set up where a ghost falls from the ceiling as he walks into the room, but for now it really seems that all he’s going to do is take this survey.

“Let’s see…” Daehyun begins aloud after the staff girl closes the door upon her exit, clicking around on the screen. There’s a camera mounted right above the monitor and another in the corner, and he makes sure to smile at both. “First question is, ‘Is this your first time walking through our haunted house?’ That’s easy. Yes. I don’t like going to them, usually, so actually this is one of my first _ever_ haunted houses…”

He clicks ‘yes’ and is led to the next screen and question. After a couple of questions like this, the flashing red light of the camera catches his eye as it is recording. It strikes him as odd that they just want to film them all taking a survey...there must be something more to this. Somewhere down the hall, a door slams, and Daehyun twitches at the sound, feeling his breath get caught in his throat. Suddenly, images from the haunted house fill his mind. The creepy shelves full of cobwebs, the story about the father, the corpse in the closet. He swallows, unable to shake the feeling that something is going to happen soon.

The survey begins to ask questions unrelated to the haunted house experience and more directly related to fear: In the list below, what are you most afraid of?

Daehyun scans the list. Vampires, zombies, and aliens are all options, but his eyes land on the word _ghost_. The ceiling creaks above him as he clicks on this answer, and he looks up at it, expecting something to fall. Maybe someone will have pulled away a panel of the ceiling to reveal a monster in the structure! But he sees nothing but the white ceiling. To the camera, he chuckles nervously. “Just getting spooked,” he explains. “I really don’t like things like this…”

After another question, the ceiling creaks again, and a gentle breeze tickles the back of his neck. What was that movie about the family taking over an old hotel, the one with the dead twin girls and the river of blood? He squeezes his eyes shut and taps his foot rapidly under the table, trying to force himself to think of something else. Puppies. Food. The screams of their fans during live performances.

“Just a few more questions,” Daehyun reads aloud, trying to answer questions faster. By now, he’s sure he’s being watched, and not just by the camera. He feels like a coward, but everyone in the group knows how much he doesn’t like being alone, and add an experience in a haunted house right before that…

“What would you do if confronted by your biggest fear?” Daehyun reads aloud again, pursing his lips at the question. It’s open-ended, so he’ll have to write it in. Taking a deep breath, he positions his hands over the keyboard.

“Well--”

Something crawls into his field of vision, close to the floor. Daehyun shrieks so loud he’s sure the glass in the room reverberates. Immediately, he pictures a demon slithering around on the floor, waiting for the perfect moment to suck out his soul (or something). His chair falls back when he panics and stands, backing up against the wall as he watches a ghost jerkily appear in full from behind the table.

It’s grotesque! All long black hair in front of its face, too-pale skin and splotches of red on its white clothing that look an awful lot like blood. Red rings its eyes. Daehyun isn’t the religious sort but he mumbles a prayer up to anything that will listen as the ghost nears, emitting a croaking from its throat like it hasn’t had water for years.

Daehyun darts to the door, screaming all the way, but the door is shut tight! He pulls on the handle, shaking it, but it’s stuck -- locked from the outside. He tells himself this isn’t real, and then he tells himself again. It’s obviously a prank.

But this doesn’t stop his imagination from going wild, and it doesn’t stop the ghost from closing in on him.

“Don’t come any closer!” he screams, his voice breaking on the last word. “Yah! Let me out!” He gives the doorknob another hearty shake, not daring to look behind him.

Which is when the lights go out.

.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sorry. i said there would be sex. but there is no sex. just fluff and the possibility of cuddling in the near future.

“GO AWAY,” Daehyun says, his voice muffled by the barrier of the door. Staff have booked the musical group a couple of rooms in a hotel to stay overnight outside of the city, as filming would resume early in the morning. Himchan has the inkling that staff plan to surprise them with an early wake-up call and mission in order to catch their faces bare and their minds unaware. Fans love that sort of thing.

“Daehyunnie,” Himchan says patiently. “I said I was sorry. Come on. Let me in so I can apologize properly.” He has chocolate bars and bags of chips and cookies from the convenience stand in the lobby in his arms and Netflix on his mind. He and Daehyun secretly love snacking late at night, out of sight from their staff, their fingers greasy from the oil coating the chips. His foot connects lightly with the door, knocking. “Daehyunnie?”

Daehyun sniffs pitifully, and Himchan can imagine him bundled up in bed, the covers pulled up to his ears. “You know I hate things like that. You’re so mean!”

“It was funny!” Himchan retorts. “I don’t think I’ve _ever_ heard you shriek like that before, when the lights went off and I grabbed you, and scared you, and -- okay. Yeah. It was kind of mean. I just got caught in the moment! Youngjae did the same to me. And! It wasn’t my idea to turn the lights off. It was Youngjae’s.”

“Yeah, and he’s BANNED from this room,” Daehyun all but shouts. Youngjae had indeed gone off to play with the maknaes, and by now they were probably knee-deep into a complicated Pokemon battle on their gaming systems or else sprawled all over each other sleeping. Yongguk was still in the lobby, speaking with staff and managers and planning their next day with them. Himchan had offered to stay with him, but Yongguk had taken one look at the scowl on Daehyun’s face and the tension between them and shaken his head.

“Somehow I don’t think he’ll have a problem with that,” Himchan mutters against the door. He shifts the snacks in his arms and pouts at the barrier.

Honestly, he hadn’t expected Daehyun to take it this hard. Sure, everyone had been watching a live feed of Himchan and Youngjae’s prank in another room, so everyone had heard Daehyun’s high-pitched shriek of terror when the lights turned off and Himchan, dressed as a ghost, grabbed him. The cameras had automatically switched to capture everything in night-vision mode, so everyone had also seen Daehyun’s pretty face all twisted up in horror when Himchan cornered him in the room. They’d stopped when Daehyun sank to the floor like his knees had given out, lights turned back on to reveal Himchan taking off his wig. There had been a moment when Himchan worried Daehyun would simply storm off, but Daehyun played it off well for the cameras, whining to his hyung and acting tough but embarrassed.

The trouble had started when they’d all climbed into the van, after. Daehyun put his headphones on and turned up his music and ignored everyone as he glared out the window in the backseat.

“What was that?” Daehyun says now, as he hadn’t been able to make out Himchan’s muttering.

“Nothing.” Himchan shifts the snacks in his arms and the bags crinkle against him. He thinks now, maybe more than experiencing the prank itself, that all of his closest friends sat around laughing at Daehyun’s reactions to the prank is probably what is making apologizing difficult. Himchan sighs. Image is important to all of them, but perhaps he and Daehyun take those hits the hardest. “I’m sorry,” he says again, louder. “I’ll just -- I’m leaving some Chocopie outside your door, okay? And I’ll be in 325, two doors down, if you want to -- come by. Or something.”

He leaves some snacks at the door and with a last lingering glance, shuffles back down the hall to his room for the night.

.

Two hours later, a timid knock at the door distracts Himchan from learning what secret ingredient a contestant on a cooking show will be using in her dish. “It’s unlocked,” he calls out, expecting staff to step inside and remind him to sleep. Could be Bbang, he muses, although he’s not sure why Bbang would knock.

It’s not staff or Yongguk, though; it’s Daehyun.

His hair is a fluffy mess around his head, and he looks to have dragged one of the hotel room’s thinner blankets from the bed with him like a cape as he trudged down the hall to Himchan’s room. “Can I...come in?”

“Yes,” Himchan says, “but don’t you dare put that blanket on this bed. It’s trailing all over the floor!” Himchan scoots over on his single bed to make room and Daehyun does as he was bid, leaving the stolen blanket in a crumpled heap on the carpet as he climbs onto the springy mattress next to Himchan. There’s not much room -- their knees knock together, and Himchan nearly gets an elbow in his face as Daehyun attempts to squirm under the covers with him. “Comfy?” Himchan asks when Daehyun appears to be settled, laying on his stomach and mirroring Himchan’s pose. Himchan’s tablet lays on his pillow under their noses.

“What are you watching?”

“Korea’s Next Top Chef. Want to watch it with me?”

Daehyun nods, and Himchan presses play. The contestant’s secret ingredient is squid ink, which kind of turns Himchan’s stomach when he watches her approach the ice cream machine.

Attention no longer fully invested in the show, Himchan turns back to Daehyun, who has his head pillowed on his arms, face impassive as he takes in the chef’s performance. “You okay?” Himchan asks, shifting a bit to nudge Daehyun’s side.

Daehyun says, a bit pitifully, “I couldn’t sleep.”

That explains the messy bed-hair. “Wanted my company?” Himchan asks next, waggling his eyebrows. Daehyun holds back a snort of laughter, an action that makes Himchan’s heart jump in his chest. He feels like he’s being forgiven, little by little. “Or just my snacks?”

“Youngjae didn’t come back yet,” Daehyun explains. “He’s probably just going to stay in Junhong and Jongup’s room...so our room is pretty empty. And I kept seeing your ugly ghost face every time I closed my eyes.”

“So you were scared,” Himchan teases as Daehyun scowls, his bottom lip turned out in a pout. “It’s fine,” Himchan says quickly. “I kind of like your company, anyway.”

“I kind of like your company, too,” Daehyun returns. A pause. With a heavy sigh, he continues: “Sorry I was being a brat, earlier.”

“It’s nothing I didn’t expect,” Himchan says. This earns him a light shove, but Daehyun rests there against him after, warm and pressed against his side. “It’s okay, anyway. I kind of deserved it.”

“Yeah, you did.”

The show ends and the next episode starts up. Halfway through, Himchan looks over to take in Daehyun’s sleeping face, a softer version of him. He puts his tablet away and lays his head down in the spot that it had warmed, inches away from Daehyun’s nose. He pulls the covers up over them both and turns off the light. After a moment’s consideration, Himchan closes the distance between them with a light kiss on Daehyun’s forehead.

“Happy Halloween,” Himchan whispers into the darkness. Daehyun sways closer, his body curled toward Himchan.

.

extra;

The camera crew wakes them up, throwing the blinds open and flooding the room with light. “You have 2 minutes to change into these costumes and go to another room to wake up the members there, or you will receive a punishment!” someone shouts.

Daehyun, always quick to wake (ugh, a _morning person_ , Himchan secretly thinks), chooses the easier costume -- a familiar-looking chicken onesie suit. That leaves Himchan with an elaborate princess gown, wig, tiara, and slippers. “This can’t be done in two minutes!” Himchan protests as the zipper of the gown gets caught.

Daehyun cackles as he flaps his way out of the room and down the hall. “I won’t get the punishment,” he calls out behind him. “Sorry, hyung!”

.


End file.
